


Seeing Red (the Poet Inside remix)

by curtaincall



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Episode: s06e19 Seeing Red, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-02
Updated: 2013-11-02
Packaged: 2017-12-31 06:54:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1028618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curtaincall/pseuds/curtaincall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Glimpses into Spike's head during Seeing Red that happen to be loose translations of Latin poetry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In the Bathroom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Translation of Ovid's Amores 1.7.

He needed a friend, or an enemy, or something: someone to shackle these damned hands of his into chains, to hold him back until he calmed from his fury. His anger had, once again, been his downfall; he had moved his arms--heedless arms--against her, and now she lay there, weeping, bruised by his mad hands.  
He held nothing sacred but her, and he had defiled the shrine of his only god.  
He looked at her, frightened and disheveled, and marveled that she could still be so beautiful: like some warrior princess or mad Bacchante, the displaced locks gave her a wild radiance.  
Who would not call him insane, who would not call him savage, to have harmed such beauty? She herself called him nothing, but the tears that still lined her face accused him more eloquently than any tongue.  
Fuck! He wanted his arms to fall from his shoulders, useless limbs, he could well stand to lose them, ministers of slaughter and crime! Unholy hands!  
He could never have beaten her in a fair fight, he'd had that proved to him time and time again, and now he'd taken advantage of her wounded state to wrangle a perverted triumph. Oh yes, line the streets in praise, dark creatures of the world! This victory was truly great.  
He'd bruised her before, more fittingly, in their rough play; he'd called her filthy names, ripped her clothes down to shreds, run his fingernails down her cheeks till they drew blood, held her hair tight in his grip.  
But this time...she had been almost as marble-cold as he was, her limbs had fluttered like reeds in the breeze, like ripples on the ocean, and her tears had poured from her in a rush of release before he'd realized he was doing her harm, and in his eyes the tears turned to blood.  
He wanted to throw himself at her feet, but he knew she would only push him away; he would have let her hurt him all she wanted, tear his eyes out, wreck his scalp, but he knew she would now recoil from his touch.  
And all he wanted to do, looking at her, so pitiful on the cold white linoleum, was to right her disheveled hair, so that no sign of his sins might survive.


	2. In the Crypt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Translation of Catullus 8.

“Stupid Spike! Stop being such a goddamn idiot. You know she’s gone, so why don’t you get that through your thick head? Oh, yeah, she was your sun (suns are bloody dangerous for vampires, don’t you know that?), you’d follow wherever she went, you loved her more than anyone’s ever been loved from the beginning of time to the end.  
“Oh, but fuck it, you knew, all those things that happened, you wanted them, not her, she just let you want her. But now she doesn’t want you anymore, does she? And you can’t do anything but decide not to want her.  
“You gotta stop following her. You gotta stop moping over her. Set your mind to it, you bleeding fool, and be the man you used to be.  
“Oh, farewell, Slayer! Spike’s gonna be strong now. He’s not gonna miss you, not one bloody bit, and he sure as hell isn’t gonna waste his time chasing after someone who doesn’t love him. But you’re gonna cry when you realize no one loves you anymore.  
“You bitch! I hope you cry your eyes out for the rest of your miserable goddamn life. Who’s gonna come to you now, huh? Who’s gonna tell you how fucking beautiful you are? Who’re you gonna love now? Whose are you gonna be? Who are you going to kiss, whose lips are you gonna bite in that way you have, savage and tender and fucking amazing…  
“Oh, damn it, Spike, stop thinking about her and be the man you were.”


End file.
